Astros show no resentment after series win
Though there was room for resentment, the Astros expressed nothing but respect for the A’s after closing out their postseason series with Oakland in four games.
The A’s scored a pair of runs in the ninth inning of Game 4 on Thursday but ultimately fell short of another comeback, losing 11- 6 as the Astros advanced to the American League Championship Series.
In the end, the Astros sent the A’s home by stringing together at-bats, getting timely contributions from their bullpen and leaning on their championship experience. The Astros’ core of Carlos Correa, George Springer, Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman has reached its fourth straight ALCS.
Houston will take on the winner of the divisionround series between the Yankees and Rays one year after former Astros pitcher, and current A’s starter, Mike Fiers blew the whistle on Houston’s sign-stealing controversy that made them the most hated team in Major League Baseball.
After expressing throughout the season and postseason a desire to prove the haters wrong, Houston did an about-face after finishing off the A’s — aside from a winking tweet fired off by Houston catcher Martín Maldonado shortly after the final out.
“Absolutely not,” Correa said when asked if the controversy motivated the team. “We were motivated because we want to win. We want to bring another championship to the city of Houston. We know what it feels like, and we wanted to feel like that once again.”
No punches were thrown, but these four ALDS games were a slugfest. With 55 combined runs, both teams got hits from everywhere in the lineup, and no lead was ever safe.
DID LAUREANO KNOW WHAT WAS COMING? >> The Hous
ton Astros know how much of a difference it can make when a batter knows what pitch is coming. For a brief moment in Game 4 of the ALDS, it appeared Oakland A’s center fielder Ramón
Laureano also knew what that advantage felt like.
Astros starter Zack Greinke made the unusual decision to send a hand signal to his catcher Martín Maldonado during Laureano’s at-bat, holding up two fingers. Seconds later, Laureano blasted an offspeed offering from Greinke deep into the left center field bleachers at Dodger Stadium.
Greinke’s two-finger gesture would typically indicate a pitcher wants to change the set of signs he’s using, but Greinke wasn’t waiting for Maldonado to run through a new set of signals. The pitcher was instead working off the initial sign Maldonado gave, but he wasn’t explicitly showing Laureano a breaking ball was coming.
“That’s just what I’ve been doing,” Greinke explained. “I just switch the pitch so that doesn’t waste time shaking off and stuff. So just a way to save some time.”
Greinke fired his slider, the pitch hung over the plate, and Laureano sent it 449 feet for a mammoth home run.
Thursday’s motion created an immediate stir on social media, particularly because Laureano wasn’t fooled by the slider.
L au re a no ex pla i ned postgame that the gesture wouldn’t have made a difference even if Greinke was telling him what pitch was next.
“I don’t look at him when I hit, I just look at the grass and whenever he’s ready, I just look at him,” Laureano said.
MELVIN INJURES FOOT >> After picking up a foot injury in batting practice, Bob Melvin left the A’s pitching changes to pitching coach Scott Emerson in Game 4.
It was a surprising sight for A’s observers without advance notice, but Melvin downplayed the situation after the game.
“I’m fine,” he said. “I just had a little foot thing pop up during batting practice so I didn’t want to limp out there, limp back and take a bunch of time.”